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Tetsurō was being watched. He could feel it, the inquisitive stare that bore into his back and made him shiver in the cool air of midnight. The moon was high in the clear night sky, surrounded by a blanket of stars that seemed to sparkle with an unusual clarity considering he was still rather close to the distant lights of the city. Everything was bathed in a pale glow - everything save for Tetsurō himself, hidden within the looming shadow of a squat storage shed, the obsidian black of his fur ruffling a little in the breeze.
It was a nice night to be out. He could smell the scent of other night creatures on the slightly warm summer breeze; mice, rats, a few other cats, maybe a fox or two. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked and Tetsurō paid it no mind. Dogs were only dangerous if he let them get too close, and even then it was usually closer to misplaced affection than any actual killing instinct on their part.
Tetsurō was more likely to hurt them than the other way around.
He was still being watched, and yet he could scent nothing on the wind, no signs of danger to set him on edge. Still, he knew better by that point than to assume it was his imagination - he had made that mistake before, and had a long scar across his flank to show for it when a fox’s jaws got a little too close and almost took his life. He had barely been out of kittenhood by that point, still too small to really defend himself, and shouldn’t really have been wandering around on his own. But he had survived, and he had learned, and he hadn’t made the same mistake again.
There! Golden eyes stared at him, round and unblinking. The tree was to his left, upwind, so the easterly wind fluttering over him like a gentle caress would never have warned him of the danger. Slitted hazel-grey eyes stared back, all senses on high alert as the owl tilted his head first to the left, then to the right.
Tetsurō had never really liked owls. They were strange and they were dangerous. Unpredictable, with sharp claws and sharper beaks, gripping and rending and tearing at the flesh of any poor creature that accidentally ended up as dinner. The smaller ones were fine, he could ignore those, too tiny to really be a danger to a cat of his size. This one, though - this one was big. Silver and grey, with two tufts of feathers standing up atop its head, and it still hadn’t blinked.
He needed to be careful. It was too soon to shift back, and he was stuck out in the open. The suburbs were nice to wander around when he couldn’t sleep, but they were still populated enough that a naked human running about would attract attention, even in the very early hours of the morning when anyone with any sense would be tucked up safe in bed.
The way Tetsurō saw it, he had two options; either continue with the staring contest until the owl grew bored and moved on to hopefully smaller prey - because, despite being a predator himself, Tetsurō was under no illusions on how appealing he must look as a potential meal for such a large bird. Or, he could risk the thing deciding to attack by fleeing into the undergrowth and finding a decent hiding spot until it flew off to find an easier snack.
Neither option sounded appealing. Option three, of course, was to shift back into his human form and scare the owl off - but he was miles from home, and wouldn’t be able to shift back into a cat again for a good few hours afterwards, meaning he would be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting home.
Damnit. He shouldn’t have wandered so far, really. Hadn’t really realised he was doing it, until the sensation of being under scrutiny had made him stop in his tracks. It was still staring, and Tetsurō shifted.
Bad move - a spread of wings, a rush of air, and the owl dropped, plummeting towards him at a speed he wouldn’t be able to avoid, talons outstretched.
Shit shit shit!
He didn’t have a choice. With a disgruntled yowl, Tetsurō pushed back and out, feeling his bones warp and his skin stretch. It wasn’t the most pleasant sensation, but he was long since used to it, sprawling back into the bush behind him and putting an arm up to protect his face from the too-fast approaching attack. He braced himself, knowing that the owl was too close, knowing it wouldn’t be able to pull up in time and he was going to have a new set of scars to show for it.
Still, better those scars be on his forearm than across his face.
The press of talons into his flesh never came. Instead, Tetsurō found himself being shoved bodily into the dirt, with a lap-full of not-owl as a very heavy and equally naked male landed ungracefully on top of him.
“Shit, sorry dude.” The man laughed as though this was the most fun he’d had in a while, pushing himself up on his arms though making no move to shift from between Tetsurō’s legs. The owl was grinning, too wide and clearly amused, those same golden eyes staring down at him. “Didn’t know you were, yanno.”
Tetsurō sorta wanted to punch him.
“Well now you know.” He drawled, levelling the man with a glare. “So, you can get off me now.” Because he was heavy, damnit! The guy was nothing short of built, all broad shoulders and solid muscle. He wasn’t bad looking either, and if he kept shifting around like that Tetsurō was going to have another problem very soon. One that he didn’t particularly feel like dealing with while sitting in a bush in the middle of the suburbs, thank you very much.
“You’re pretty hot.” The guy hummed, almost as though he was commenting on the weather, and Tetsurō flushed up to the tips of his ears.
“You’re not bad, yourself.” He replied - because what else could he say to that? He gave up on trying to wrangle his blush back under control as the man grinned again, his entire face lighting up as he finally, finally pushed himself back far enough that Tetsurō’s traitorous body stopped trying to respond to having the solid muscle of a stranger’s thigh pressed up against his still very naked private regions.
“Bokuto Kōtarō.” The man - Bokuto - introduced himself, pushing himself to his feet and offering a hand to tug Tetsurō up as well. Tetsurō took it, letting himself be pulled up, stumbling a little as he stepped on a sharp stone and winced.
“Kuroo Tetsurō.” He answered, letting his hand linger for a beat too long before releasing his grip on Bokuto’s fingers. “So I really hope you have some plan for getting us clothes, considering I’m stuck like this for a while thanks to you.”
“I didn’t know you were human, I thought you were a cat.” Bokuto whined, actually whined, and by all rights it really shouldn’t have been as cute as Tetsurō found it.
“Do you often go around attacking cats?” If Tetsurō sounded a little put out, that’s because he really was. Okay, so he might not be a cat all of the time, but he was allowed to be a little protective of the species as a whole, especially when he thought of how easily those razor-sharp talons would tear through the little bodies of the smaller cats in his group. Kenma was wary and rarely ventured out beyond their usual territory, but Shibayama was still so young, and Yaku wasn’t likely to get much bigger, and both had a habit of wandering off.
Then there was Lev. Lev, who was as oblivious as he was large, who was barely out of kittenhood and still growing, who wasn’t allowed out alone because he had no sense for danger but who snuck out anyway. Lev, who would make an excellent meal for a large predator such as Bokuto.
“You looked tasty.” The huff and matching pout shifted a little too quickly into a leer as golden eyes flicked down Tetsurō’s body and back up again. “To be fair, you still do.”
“Clothes first.” Tetsurō had to put his foot down, had to be firm, because his damnable traitorous body was reacting a little too strongly under the intensity of Bokuto’s stare. Thankfully it seemed to do the trick as Bokuto’s expression shifted back into a pout - and really, just how changeable was this guy’s mood?
“Right, yeah.” He huffed, moving to presumably shove his hands in his pockets, before belatedly realising that he didn’t have pockets at that moment and barking out a laugh. Tetsurō couldn’t help himself - an intelligent snort slipped out at the ridiculousness of it all, and he covered his mouth as Bokuto grinned back at him, seemingly unbothered by his nakedness. “Come on bro, my place is just over there, I’m sure I’ve got something that’ll fit you.”
“Thanks.” Tetsurō fell into step next to his new acquaintance, thankful that the breeze was still warm and the street was still empty, letting Bokuto’s idle chatter fill the air between them and finding he didn’t mind it at all.